Swap Meet 2016 Feedback

[Zelyhon]

Hello all.

Another Fanime come and gone.  That means another Fanime Swap Meet come and gone.  As part of my desire to keep improving Swap Meet year after year, I'm looking for your honest feedback on the event in the hopes that we can improve on certain things for next year.

Let me just state right off the bat that I understand the general registration was an issue, as was the fact that the registration process mentioned vouchers to get to the front of the line that we didn't have.  That particular confusion was on me.  Based on the state of registration in the past, I made the decision that vouchers wouldn't be necessary, and thus didn't request any while setting up Swap Meet.  I then forgot to have the language about that removed from the registration process, which lead to some confusion.  I'll definitely be addressing that in planning for next year.

I also know that we started a little late on Thursday due to check-in taking longer than anticipated.  While part of that might be from the aforementioned registration issues, it's an easy fix for next year.  I'll probably just start seller check-in two hours early instead of an hour and a half.  We had two hours on Friday and were able to get a larger number of people in and ready to go early.

So, with that said, any feedback you might have on this year as opposed to years past, or thoughts going forward, are welcome.

[Anon]

No complaints from me, as a seller. IMO you've got our end on lockdown and good to go. Thanks for another great year.

[Ecchi ja Nai]

I agree, as a seller I had no complaints whatsoever.  The check-in process was smooth and I thought the turn out was fantastic, especially on Friday.

Just curious, are announcements made in the convention center or at stage zero when swap meet opens?  I was speaking with a couple of first-timers to Fanime and they didn't know about swap meet before I mentioned it.  I'm wondering if most people who come to browse know about it ahead of time, if they're directed to it, or if they just see a bunch of people heading to the south hall or they saw it in the program.

I got lucky again and got my badge with relatively little issue on Thursday.  I learned my lesson from back when reg was held at the Fairfield and arrive early on Thursdays now.  I was more or less at the front of the line when they temporarily closed down reg before reopening at 3 this year, so all together I only had to wait about 40 minutes.  It would be nice if there was an option for people selling at swap meet to get their badge faster if they can't show up as early as I do, but I completely blame all those problems on reg and Experient, or whoever the company was that they switched to last minute.  Nothing you could have done there, and like you mentioned, the last two years were a non-issue so it was hard to anticipate that things would tank so hard this year.

Already looking forward to swap meet next year!

[powerofunity]

This is probably not helpful at all in terms of places to improve, but coming from a buyer, I think Swap Meet went perfectly this year.

I wasn't able to make it on Thursday due to the registration line, but Friday went very smoothly. Staff was very good about noting where the end of the Swap Meet line was outside (I think there was a person there with a sign?), and they were very courteous about telling us when they needed us to move in closer or make the lines more distinctly separated.

As for inside South Hall, the use of space was very good -- it didn't feel too cramped, except for the most popular sellers (but that's not on Swap Meet staff anyway). Another plus was that it wasn't too hot, despite the number of people. And all the sellers I talked to were very friendly and offered great prices.

All in all, A+ from me! Keep up the great work. :)

[dooditzmike]

I hate to be a broken record but, Day 0 was a nightmare. I arrived 530pm and saw the lines were ridiculously long. Most people were still waiting for an hour and a half or even more. I asked if theres any way possible to set up at the swap meet without picking up the badge since lines were extremely long. All I got was a "No" and kind of a tough luck kind of answer with no solution to the problem. So I had to be that guy and borrowed my friend's badge so I could set up. It wasn't until later that people who were selling at the swap meet could have gotten ahead of the line to pick up the badges. Gee thanks for the heads up. Nobody told me anything... That was my only complaint

But other than that everything was great!  I give it a B+

[Mew]

Just FYI that I saw a guy who was obviously a reseller. He was selling card sleeves and other TCG goods and had multiples of all items. Clearly reselling stuff he bought from AmiAmi. Probably impossible to restrict this activity but just putting this out there.

[rogerfox]

Just FYI that I saw a guy who was obviously a reseller. He was selling card sleeves and other TCG goods and had multiples of all items. Clearly reselling stuff he bought from AmiAmi. Probably impossible to restrict this activity but just putting this out there.

Yeah there was several of them, actually is part of a community of people on Facebook at I'm in based around those cards and pretty sure it is meant just for resell. I honestly don't know if that's bad or not being card sleeves because you kind of need more than one, but it is a good thing to point out. You don't really get a lot of places that sells card sleeves in the dealer's room at Fanime though so dunno if it's bad or not anyways.

On my personal feedback, things went very well! I only did Thursday but as you mentioned more time for the sellers to get in and set up so it doens't hold up the line is best, and that's about the only complaint I had. Everything went super smooth, the spaces were real clear where the cut offs were (and big too which was a huge plus!) and very helpful staff. For sure one of the more organized events so it's always a joy to do this event!

I can only think of one buyer at the very end who if he didn't like a price I gave him he would throw the toy down to the floor saying nah, so that was pretty rude but I can forgive it for the fact that we were closing up and there wouldn't be other buyers by this point, but still a rude thing to do to other people's items.

[Rurutie8]

Since I was running an event on Friday, I could only sell on Thursday.  The badge pick-up line was so long on Thursday that I could not get to the swap meet until 8:00 pm.  Still, within one and a half hours, I made more than enough to break even.  I left well before midnight to catch the last VTA train.  This was still my most successful Fanime swap meet ever.

[Sunara Ishi]

I thought overall swap meet went fairly well both days. However, I do have a few points I'd like to mention.

1. Increase space between sellers.
I still think that there should be more space between sellers. Although I would like better use of that space in the tent, I understand staff's reasoning for not allowing spaces beyond a certain point. Some areas got very crowded and hard to maneuver. I think that a (at least) 4ft gap between sellers would be awesome. More would be better.

2. Maybe supply tables for swap meet?
There was several times that I was nearly pushed over onto someone's items. (Not all of us are in peak physical shape. I have a weak hip.) I wouldn't want to have to pay for their broken items and the person who pushed me would likely be long gone.

3. Limit the number of buyers allowed in at any given time.
Again... too many people making it hard to maneuver and look at things.

As for sellers re-selling merch; that always has happened with swap meet. It is normal. Just because it is swap meet doesn't mean that the items have to be old or used. The items can be newer items. Though, I think sellers that also have a booth in dealer's hall shouldn't be allowed.

[Mew]

As for sellers re-selling merch; that always has happened with swap meet. It is normal. Just because it is swap meet doesn't mean that the items have to be old or used. The items can be newer items. Though, I think sellers that also have a booth in dealer's hall shouldn't be allowed.

It always happens because it's difficult to police. Swap meet isn't meant to be a cheap alternative to a dealer's booth. There's no issue with selling items you no longer have use for that just happen to be new/unopened, but people technically are not supposed to be selling items that they originally purchased for the sole purpose of reselling. The person I mentioned clearly fell into this category, and that activity, afaik, is against swap meet rules.

[Moonbug]

Great job, great location, great communication!

Thank you for allowing our Swap Meet registration with badge number suffice in lieu of the badge via LineCon that took place. That was a HUGE help on Thursday.

I look forward to next year!  :)